About

Hello! 你好！

I am Associate Professor at the Department of Linguistics and Modern Languages and Deputy Director of the Childhood Bilingualism Research Centre (CBRC) at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). I am also a member of the Brain and Mind Institute (BMI) at CUHK.

I studied Chinese, education and linguistics at Peking University (B.A., M.A.) and University of Cambridge (M.Phil., Ph.D.) and completed postdoctoral training in the Childhood Bilingualism Research Centre (CBRC) at CUHK. Before taking up my current position in 2023, I was Assistant Professor at City University of Hong Kong (2020-2023), and prior to that, Lecturer and Research Assistant Professor at CUHK (2014-2020).

I have been the Principal Investigator (PI) of several longitudinal research projects investigating the dynamic and intricate relations between multilingual input and acquisition outcomes in infants, toddlers and preschoolers in the Greater Bay Area of China, funded by the Research Grants Council, HKSAR. I am serving on the Editorial Boards of Second Language Research, Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, and is currently Associate Editor of Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism. I regularly deliver seminar and workshop talks for parents, teachers and educators to promote evidence-based home language input planning and pedagogical interventions for monolingual, bilingual and trilingual children.

I was born and raised in Guangzhou (also known as “Canton”), China, and am an alumnus of the Affiliated High School of South China Normal University. I grew up speaking both Cantonese (Guangzhou) and Mandarin (Putonghua), and am mother of two trilingual boys.

Research profile 研究内容和方法

I am broadly interested in finding out how language input and cross-linguistic interaction, independently and collectively, shape the process and outcomes of child and adult language acquisition. We have been using combinations of corpus, experimental and statistical methods to predict and account for patterns of language learning and processing as well as features of child-directed speech in Mandarin, Cantonese and English speakers. Since last year, our team has ventured into adult third language acquisition involving German and French. Our postdocs, PhD students and research assistants work collaboratively and closely as a team to investigate language acquisition in diverse populations, contexts and linguistic domains.

In 2025-2026, one of the team’s priorities is to continue to work intensively on a number of linked projects on multilingual input and early language development from age 0 to 6 funded by the Research Grants Council, HKSAR: we will collect new speech samples from monolingual and bilingual siblings in Shenzhen and Hong Kong (GRF 2026-2028), and continue to report findings from two recently completed projects focusing on parents and their trilingual toddlers in Guangzhou and Hong Kong (GRF 2021-2024), and bilingual mothers and domestical helpers in Hong Kong (ECS 2023-2025).

We support Open Science/Scholarship, and have been sharing our data with the research community and the public through CHILDES (EACMC, CHCC, HKMECC, BJCMC) and other platforms. We value impactful research within and beyond the academia, and are looking for opportunities to collaborate with NGOs, educational bodies and industrial partners to disseminate and translate our research findings to benefit parents, teachers and the society.

Recruitment 2025-2026 (updated Aug 2025)

We have openings for research staff and fully funded PhD student positions almost every year. All our staff and students in my team are affiliated with the Department of Linguistics and Modern Languages as well as the Childhood Bilingualism Research Centre at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Send me your CV and introduce yourself if you are a match:

• Senior research staff (research associate, post-doctoral research fellow): PhD degree in linguistics, psychology or related subjects; excellent analytical, experimental and statistical skills; record of producing rigorous and innovative studies as thesis or published in international journals as lead author; knowledge of Chinese languages is a big plus though not a must. Job responsibilities: publishing high-quality studies based on the team’s existing and growing database of early language development; proposing and conducting new experimental studies in language acquisition and bilingualism; assisting in student supervision and lab management. Knowledge of eye-tracking, advanced statistical modelling and machine learning is especially appreciated [Update: We have completed our hiring for 2025-2026. Come back later for updates about opportunities in 2026-2027.]
• PhD student(s) (2026 entry): Bachelor’s and/or master’s degree in linguistics or related subjects from top universities worldwide; outstanding academic record and great research potential; strong research proposal addressing important questions in language acquisition (L1, L2 or L3; monolingual, bilingual or trilingual; child or adult; corpus or experimental). The strongest applicants will be nominated for the Hong Kong PhD Fellowship, which is the most prestigious PhD scholarship in Hong Kong with a generous annual stipend and many practical benefits. [Update: We have completed admission interviews for 2026 entry. Come back later for updates about PhD student admissions for 2027 entry.]

Contact me

maggiezymai@cuhk.edu.hk